In their quest to give back to the society, the Class of ‘68 year group of Akropong Salem has decided to institute a Maths and English competition among Junior High Schools (JHS) within Akropong, the capital of Akuapem North Municipality.
The brilliant initiative, dubbed “The Class of ‘68 English and Maths Contest, covers Maths and English Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) syllabus for JHS, with the aim to develop positive attitudes towards analytical thinking and mathematics.
According to the Class of ‘68 year group, the contest would contribute to building interest and confidence in Mathematics and English among JHS students and teachers in Akropong, and by extension the entire municipality.
Throwing light on why they decided to choose English and Maths, the chairman for the Class of ‘68 group hinted that recent national students test scores showed a decline in reading and arithmetic.
According to him, the average JHS student does not know how to calculate, read critically, write expressively or debate intelligently, attributing the situation to increasing deterioration of classroom instruction.
He continued that, even though there is a school of thought that examination is not the surest way to test the ability of students, the class of ‘68 group hold the view that examination is the most important, since life itself is a form of examination.
This, therefore, formed the basis to put together the Maths and English contest to examine the ability of the students with corresponding awards and prizes to deserving students and schools.
In all, 28 students, out of seven (7) schools, participated in the second edition of the class of ‘68 Maths and English competition, with three students from Presbyterian College of Education Demonstration JHS winning all three prizes.
The students are;Wiafe Nana Darfour Edmund who came first, whilst Ernest Kwasi Asuming Ahwa and Israel Akorante Arthur took the second and third positions respectively.They were given cash prizes and certificates for participation
Speaking after the quiz competition, some students of the PCG Demonstration Junior High School said they have benefitted from the quiz, including giving them more insight and motivation to study hard to achieve higher academic excellence.
The Special Guest of Honour for the ceremony, Evangelist Dr. Aboah Offei, bemoaned the bad attitude among the youth, compared to the early generation, adding that the youth don’t take advice from the elderly people, which is of serious concern to teachers and parents.
He added that the youth do not submit to cultural instructions as a result of social media influence, a situation he said has led to moral decay and unacceptable social behavior.
Evangelist Dr. Aboah Offei charged the youths to take lessons from their culture and apply it in their education.
“But these days, people think going to school is to learn how to speak English, learn how to be smart and take advantage of social media, and that is all, which I totally disagree with,’’ he said.
Suggesting solutions to tackle the bad behavior among the youth in the country, Mr. Offei called on parents to live up to expectation, adding that good parental care is a shared responsibility among teachers and parents.
He stated that the government needs to come out with good policies to help the youth in their education and urged the youth to take advantage of the free senior high school initiative by enrolling into various programs in the secondary level.
